Essay
The stages of attachment
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Outline and evaluate research into caregiver-infant interactions (16)Brazelton concluded that basic rhythm is an important stage to later communications. Babies
react in certain ways to get the caregivers attention if they do not have it they often react in a
harsher way to try and communicate properly with them. Schaffer and Emerson did a
longitudinal study to record interactions between parent and child. They found that their
relationship needs to be reciprocal inorder to form a good attachment with the primary
caregiver and if both parties are very sensitive to each other's behaviours. this forms
attachments as they can both cater to each other's emotional needs. A weakness of this
study is that there is a small sample size as only 60 babies were investigated; this amount of
babies doesn't show a representative sample to the rest of the population. This is a
weakness because it does not allow the results to be valid as it does not show a true picture
of how babies form attachment in all cultures/races/genders. Another weakness is that
observations often don't show a true purpose of reciprocity. For example fieldman points out
that reciprocity and interactional synchrony are just behaviours that happen at the same
time. This is a weakness because it doesn't have high validity or a cause and effect
relationship it just shows a fact with no context.
Another caregiver-infant interaction is interactional synchrony; this is when the infant imitates
behaviour from the caregiver in a hope to interact with them. As infants have not learnt the
basics of human interaction they only know how to interact through imitation and this is how
they communicate with the primary caregiver to form attachments.
Meltzoff and Moore carried out a study to see interactional synchrony with infants as young
as three days old in which they hired actors to show three facial expressions or hand
movements where they moved their hands in a rhythm. First they kept dummies in the
babies mouth to stop them from imitating the behavior but when they removed the dummy
they found that the baby would make the same faces in the same rhythm. This leads to the
conclusion that this behaviour is not learnt but is innate and it is integral in creating
attachments.A strength of this study was that it was done in a highly controlled setting , this
means that extraneous variables were carefully controlled as lots of cameras at all angles
were used. This is a strength because it means they have high reliability. A weakness of this
study was that the research is socially sensitive as it suggests that if you do not interact with
your child similar to this you will not be able to create meaningful attachments for example a
mother who goes back to work immediately after the child is born will receive less of a
attachment with the child as a result it will affect future foundations of relationships between
infant-caregiver because the mother would believe the child is less attached to her and
would therefore spend less time with he/she. Another weakness is that it is hard to know
what is happening when observing infants because they can't communicate properly. For
example is the child making these faces on purpose or accidentally this is a weakness
because you cannot be sure that's these behaviors have a special meaning.
Discuss the stages of attachment (16)
Schaffer and Emerson did a longitudinal observation study over a course of 18 months on
infants of the ages 5-23 weeks. They found that the infants went through 4 stages of
attachment during the first year. The first stage was the asocial stage, this is during the first
6 weeks of the child's life, their attachment level is low and they produce similar responses
to any object or person. Towards the end of these weeks they start to know when they are
, with people and show preference to social stimuli, they start interacting. The next stage is
the indiscriminate stage, this is when they are 2-7 months old, in about 4 months infants
become more social they prefer human company and can distinguish between familiar and
unfamiliar people and they show little stranger anxiety. The next stage is called specific
attachment. This is when they are 7 months old, they begin to show distinctly different
protest when a particular person puts them down they show stranger anxiety. The last stage
is called multiple attachments and this is 10 months onwards they have formed their main
attachment to primary caregiver and the infant begins to grow their circle of attachments to
other family members. All these attachments form a basis for future relationships and how
they perceive others. These findings show being responsive towards infants allows for better
attachments to be made. A weakness of this study is that the asocial stage is hard to study.
This is because infants are basically immobile and have poor coordination; they don't make
noticeable movements therefore there isn't much to observe and judge on. This is a
weakness because it reduces the reliability of the results and therefore it is hard to draw any
firm conclusions. Another weakness is that there is conflicting research from different
cultures on multiple attachments. For example different researchers say that there is no
single age when babies start making multiple attachments because they make attachments
to the primary carer before they make any other attachment. This is a weakness because it
shows that multiple attachments may be different in different cultures therefore Schaffer and
Emersons research is criticised for being ethnocentric.
Discuss the role of fathers in attachment (8)
Traditionally the role of a man was to aid with basic necessities for the baby not
really have a nurturing relationship with it due to stereotypical gender roles but due
to changing attitudes fathers often take a much bigger role in their children's
lives.During the stage of secondary attachment the infant starts to create
attachments with other members of the family such as the father. By 18 months the
child has formed attachment with the father , Schaffer and Emerson found this when
they saw that infants start crying when their fathers walked away (which a key
component of attachment) Grossman (2002) carried out a longitudinal study looking
at both parents behaviour and the quality of children’s attachments into their teens
he found that children had a attachment with the father but it was less nurturing and
more to do with play and stimulation. Their role is less significant compared to the
mother's role.
Whereas Field found that fathers who were main caregivers were more likely to form
a high level of attachment with the child this is due to the responsiveness the father
has towards the child as they are the only ones responsible for the child. The fathers
interacted with 4 month old babies through behaviours mothers often showed such
as smiling, imitating and holding the baby this nurturing relationship causes fathers
to have a more important role in the child’s life as the child relies more on the father
and their emotional bond is strong. As a result attachment is formed with father and
this shows that fathers have a more complex role in children’s life . Field found that
responsiveness is more important than gender of parents. A strength of this study is
that the role of secondary attachments figures can be explained through biological
processing and gender stereotypes. For example fathers are less likely to become
primary attachment figures because of their gender role and them seeing women to
be the more nurturing and loving parent figure. This is a strength because it shows a
reason behind the difference between their roles with the children rearing it down to
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